by A groundbreaking test can successfully predict whether chemotherapy works so that patients can avoid unnecessary side effects.
The test developed by the University of Cambridge deals with the structure of tumor -dna and predicts whether it will resist the treatment.
Using data from 840 patients with various types of cancer, it was piloted and found that it could help to determine whether the treatment probably failed in ovarian, prostate and breast cancer.
James Brenton, professor of ovarian cancer medicine at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, said: “Unfortunately, there are too many cases in which cancer is resistant to chemotherapy – which is unpleasant side effects for the patient with a limited benefit.
“Chemotherapy is a main support of cancer treatment and saves many lives. In many cases, however, it is administered in the same way for over 40 years. By understanding who is most likely to react to it, chemotherapy could become tailor -made treatment for different types of cancer.”
The test can precisely predict the resistance to the treatment of three frequent types of chemotherapy based on platinum-based, anthracycline and tax anchemotherapy, which have given almost 100,000 patients in Great Britain every year in Great Britain.
Although such treatments can contribute to keeping cancer in chess, they are also toxic for healthy cells and can lead to unpleasant side effects such as tiredness, weakened immune system, nausea and hair loss.
Experts hope that tests will be used after the diagnosis to classify patients either as “chemotherapy resistant” or “sensitive to chemotherapy” for treatments to avoid giving them therapies that do not work.
Dr. Iain Foulkes, Executive Director of Research and Innovation at Cancer Research UK, which contributed to the financing of research, said: “The days of chemotherapy that is offered as” unity-fits-all “treatment.
“Thanks to this research, we move into a future in which personalized cancer treatment is an option for many patients. Only if we live more optimally, will live more successfully, better life, free from cancer.”
Researchers are now working with the pharmaceutical industry to develop the test and will apply for the regulatory authorities for their use in the clinic. They also develop further tests for other targeted cancer medication to find out how far the technology can be used for different types of cancer.
Dr. Ania Piskorz, the head of genomics at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and the co-lead author, said: “It was important to us to create a test that could be easily used in the clinic, the material that we already collect during the diagnosis and well-established genomic sequence methods.
“The test is based on the complete DNA sequence that we get from these methods, and we can adapt it to cooperation with other genomic sequencing methods that are usually used to personalize cancer treatment.”
The study was published in the Nature Genetics magazine.
